On Thu, 3 Mar 2005 18:16:43 +0000 Andrew Suffield wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 03, 2005 at 05:43:58PM +0000, Matthew Garrett wrote:
[...]
> > My camera saves a JPEG of a lightning bolt. I distribute that in the
> > belief that it's the only version of the picture in existence, and
> > nobody argues over whether it's source code. Later on, I find that
> > I'd accidently left my camera in the mode where it saves raw files
> > as well. I add that to the next upload of the package containing the
> > picture.
> >
> > Are older versions of the package now non-free?
>
> Strictly yes, being mistaken is not an excuse. Just like if you
> discover that old versions of the package contained i386 binaries
> without source, the old versions are non-free. Also note that in both
> cases, they were *always* non-free (I really shouldn't have to explain
> this). The status has not changed, it's just that we weren't aware of
> it before.
Not quite, IMHO.
It's true that being mistaken is not an excuse: so, if you (author of a
given work) have your preferred form for modification and you know that
you have it, but you accidentally fail to include it in the tar file you
distribute as "source" (suppose this archive is intended to contain
source code for a large software package that includes the work), then
you have a bug that must be fixed.
But in the case of the photographer Laura, if she thinks (in good faith)
that she has the JPEG only, then JPEG is her preferred form for
modification. When she finds out that another format existed, she may or
may not change her mind about what is her preferred form for
modification. In this case source code may change format.
It's just as with a program originally written in Fortran and then
translated (manually or automatically) in C. The programmer Jasmine may
think that now her preferred form for modification is C code. She may
delete the original Fortran code and go on making some modifications to
the C code: the former is lost, the latter is source code.
But later she finds out she still has an old copy of the Fortran code in
dusty backup: at this point she may or may not change her mind about
what is her preferred form for modification. Source code may change
format back to Fortran (or maybe not).
--
Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
......................................................................
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